Barrier coatings play an important role in a wide range of applications including electronic packaging, food packaging, and surface treatment by protecting sensitive materials from air, moisture, and other environmental elements. As a result, such coatings increase the reliability and useful lifespan of many consumer products.
Films of hydrogenated silicon oxycarbide suitable for use as interlayer dielectrics or environmental barriers, and methods for producing such films are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,871 to Loboda et al. discloses a chemical vapor deposition method for producing hydrogenated silicon oxycarbide films comprising introducing a reactive gas mixture comprising a methyl-containing silane and an oxygen providing gas into a deposition chamber containing a substrate and inducing a reaction between the methyl-containing silane and oxygen providing gas at a temperature of 25° C. to 500° C.; wherein there is a controlled amount of oxygen present during the reaction to provide a film comprising hydrogen, silicon, carbon and oxygen having a dielectric constant of 3.6 or less on the substrate.
International Application Publication No. WO 02/054484 to Loboda discloses an integrated circuit comprised of a subassembly of solid state devices formed into a substrate made of a semiconducting material, metal wiring connecting the solid state devices, and a diffusion barrier layer formed on at least the metal wiring wherein said diffusion barrier layer is an alloy film having the composition of SiwCxOyHz where w has a value of 10 to 33, x has a value of 1 to 66, y has a value of 1 to 66, z has a value of 0.1 to 60, and w+x+y+z=100 atomic %.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,593,655 to Loboda et al. discloses a semiconductor device having thereon a film produced by introducing a reactive gas mixture comprising a methyl-containing silane and an oxygen providing gas into a deposition chamber containing a semiconductor device and inducing a reaction between the methyl-containing silane and oxygen providing gas at a temperature of 25° C. to 500° C.; wherein there is a controlled amount of oxygen present during the reaction to provide a film comprising hydrogen, silicon, carbon and oxygen having a dielectric constant of 3.6 or less on the semiconductor device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,553 to Cerny et al. discloses a substrate selected from a liquid crystal device, a light emitting diode display device, and an organic light emitting diode display device having thereon a film produced by introducing a reactive gas mixture comprising a methyl-containing silane and an oxygen providing gas into a deposition chamber containing a substrate and inducing a reaction between the methyl-containing silane and oxygen providing gas at a temperature of 25° C. to 500° C.; wherein there is a controlled amount of oxygen present during the reaction to provide a film comprising hydrogen, silicon, carbon and oxygen having a dielectric constant of 3.6 or less on the substrate and to produce a film having a light transmittance of 95% or more for light with a wavelength in the range of 400 nm to 800 nm.
Although the aforementioned references disclose coatings of hydrogenated silicon oxycarbide having good dielectric and barrier properties, there is a need for dielectric coatings having superior resistance to environmental elements, particularly water vapor and oxygen.